Insurance warning

[Mikie_gb]

I have been getting my curent insurance broker to give me a renewal quotation, and I am shocked by the major discrepancies they have on their system about my personal information.

It first came to light (looking back)this time last year when I crashed and made a claim 14 days before my renewal. Speaking to AXA re the claim, they were unaware that my car had 18 inch alloys and threw a fit. The broker knew, but obviously hadn't told them. AXA paid out as it was not my mistake and hats off to them everything turned out more than satisfactory.

On going over my new quote today with the person over the phone from the broker, the details the broker had were not what they had told me or me them this time last year. Car value 5k, they said it was 8k during the quote last year. Alloys? Yes this time. value 600 quid.... second hand (pristine) OE 18 inch Turbo Cup alloys with brand new Micheline Pilot sports.... Don't know where they pulled that one out of. 600 wouldn't pay for three of the tyres let alone wheels and tyres. Protected no claims bonus? No. When I asked them how on earth my insurance went down 50 quid over the previous year, 14 days after an accident last year(it was in being repaired while the quote was being given to me) they couldn't answer me as they had just told me I had no no claims protection.

Other things they got wrong... I have 3 points on my license. No record of that. I told them via email, and over the phone, I have two cars insured with them, not something you forget to mention if you have any brains. Its the law. Car parked on drive. No. In a garage. When I moved to the UK?....2 years wrong. When I got my license. 1987, converted in the UK in 2000. All wrong or mixed up.

When asked what my no claims bonus stood at right now, they said 5 years. When the accident last year is mentioned, they have no answer. According to the AXA my no claims is ..... well they refused to tell me. and refered me back to the broker, who wouldn't tell me over the phone, and it will be posted out.

So what happened? I think they changed my details to insure my new second car last August at a competitve rate.... they dropped the quote by 300 pounds when I told them they were way off my best quote by double.

Bottom line. The documents sent out to me last year are scant to say the least, and tell me next to nothing in fact I only have a cover note. My details are correct there, so , what went wrong?

I am the one who would have been up the creek without a paddle if I had needed to claim again on either of my cars. I also suspect that ALL the paper work has not been sent on to me to stop me flagging up these errors. Trust me, I read every single line of every single document I sign, or pertains to my possensions. I even have till slips in boxes for cans of red bull and a packets of crisps bought 4 years ago, so how I slipped up by letting a company mess up so badly I don't know.


Please note, AXA was not to blame, they were fantastic during my claim besides jumping on my head about the alloys.... The broker how ever..... I just don't know what to think. They manipilated my details to ensure they kept my business? Frightening.

 

[Diver944]

ORIGINAL: Mikie_gb
They manipilated my details to ensure they kept my business? Frightening.

It sounds to me like they have just lost your business.

You have to put your trust in these agents to do a professional job on your behalf, it doesn't sound to me like they are doing that. AXA sound like they were very fair and reasonable in paying out a claim that they 'could' have contested was an invalid policy.

I wonder what would have happened if you were involved in a multi car pile up [] with deaths [], severe maiming [] and a very large compensation claim? Would they try to wriggle out of paying six figure sums if they could?

[end of melodramtic music]

 

[Mikie_gb]

It sounds to me like they have just lost your business

Yes. I consider my car uninsured at present. And it will remain locked up until the new insurance policy comes into affect. I will need to see what mayhem the daily drive policy is in and if that is voidable in any way.

 

[sawood12]

I didn't realise you had to declare that you're car has non-std alloys on it. I thought you only had to declare performance enhancing mods to the insurance companies.

Which brings to mind... I'm currenlty considering a set of ECU chips and I suppose I would need to declare to my insurers. Anyone got any idea how much this might bump up my policy by?

 

[Mikie_gb]

Yes. Material facts affecting the performance and the aesthetic of the car must be declared. Alloys make it more desirable. If they are an optional extra as fitted by the factory when the car was purchased, that is one thing. Swopping out from 15 inch to 16 inch, even if they are the same type ie teledials need to be declared. It may not affect the premium, but you MUST declare it. This extends to seats (recaro etc). It is not uncommon to have cars nicked and their interiors stripped and left. recaro's etc would look great in a saxo.

Go on this premise.... Anything you don't say, can and will be used against you in a court of law. You are up against experts paid thousands a day, whose job it is to minimise the insurance companies exposure.

It is up to them to decided what is an increased risk. One of my friends was a claims advisor and would regularly throw out claims. I heard the stories. Some fair, other marginal. The higher the claim, the more chance that it is worth their while to let it go to court,

Look at it this way...

Why pay £500 for what may amount to no cover, when for an extra £50 you get peace of mind and 100% the cover you expect.

I pay extra for the 18 inch wheels. Why? well the increased value of the items over the original, increased risk some one will want them and help themselves, and the fact that if a control arm etc snaps due to the extra loads imposed by larger tyres not specified or designed for, for this model, the insurance company has undertaken to cover my loss and to discharge my liability. Other wise they haven't.

 

[wizard]

How do they go about checking if a car has been chipped? I would have thought the new chips would look the same as the ones they replace.

Also, would they be eagle eyed enough to notice a Lindsey DPW over a standard waste gate. I would have thought a TiAL would have stood out more.

Has anyone here actually had any issues when claiming and not declared any modifications.

I remember modding my first car - A Morris Minor Traveller and declared everything it ended up raising the 3rd PF&T from £450 to nearly £800, this was over 15 years ago.

 

[wizard]

ORIGINAL: idrussell

Scott


You must declare everything, non standard alloys, sports exhaust, k&N filter etc otherwise risk non-payment, they will do anything they can to wriggle out of a claim.

I thought they did this at the best of times [8|]

 

[John Sims]

How do they go about checking if a car has been chipped?

I imagine that, if there were a significant accident and the car is otherwise obviously modified, they will interogate the chip and compare it to a standard chip.

 

[Fen]

Someone on SeatCupra.net was hit up the back and the third party's insurance were trying to get out of paying for his car because he had an undeclared mod. The mod was replacing the TDi badge on the back that was supposed to be silver with a red i with one in all red (like the more powerful diesel has). That was it. I didn't read the thread long enough to know what happened, maybe mik, slim or Graeme read it?

 

[wizard]

It must be difficult if you are a complete innocent buyer - for instance you could easily buy any average 15 year old car that has had come sort of modification to it.
Like, I am sure there must be a fair proportion of 944's or any other Porsche, that has had some modificaton, such as wheels, spoiler, trim.
I rarely see another 944 in its origonal guise, and for the innocent buyer, they must think that all 944's look like that.

Reading here alone, most have booste enhancers, DPW's, chipped, modded air intake, wheels, spoilers, I won't mention neon lights (is Mr Sims really fitting neons??)[], etc.

 

[Fen]

To be fair I think we're an unusual bunch but point taken.

In fact I just bought mu Pug as a "standard" car and found a Powerflow abortion hanging under it. It's back to standard again now though []

 

[wizard]

I'm not entirely sure about this but will check it out further (brother-in-law is in insurance)
I am sure you have to declare your point's too, at any time!! What I mean by this is if you receive any points during your contract you have to tell the insurance co. straight away.

 

[Guest]

Points you only have to declare at renewal time, not during the contract.

 

[sawood12]

I'm confused and worried now! It's difficult to know where to draw the line with what you declare. When my wife bought her Polo she managed to get the std steel wheels upgraded to alloys for free. Should she be declaring that to the insurers?

I'm not even sure if my insurance policy distunguishes between a 220bhp or a 250bhp 944! I certainly wasn't asked when I took the policy out.

 

[carlmthompson]

After my bad luck recently, I would definately recommend telling the insurers about everything. If you're not sure, tell them anyway!

When you have an accident, the first thing that will happen is an assessor will come out and look at the car (unless the damage is under about £500). If the assessor sees something out of the ordinary, the first thing they are going to do is stick two fingers up and walk away. Remember the insurance company isn't after playing fair - they're after as minimal cost to them as possible.

As far as "hidden" mods go, I'm not sure wether an assessor would look that far into it. The bodyshop certainly wouldn't shop you in to the insurance as they want the work, but my arse has been twitching anyway over what's happening with my car, and I would certainly be bricking it and waiting for "the call" if there was something I hadn't declared on the insurance!

Remember also that if you crash into someone else, and it's your fault, then it's you that's liable for all the costs (including injury etc), but you've insured against this - if the insurance walk away, you're still liable, and (as i have found out), the bill can easily pass 10k - I don't know anybody who can afford to lose that sort of money without flinching[]

 

[Guest]

Insurance is a license to print money. No more no less. I say so. End of story. No it is. Really.

 

[Guest]

Just suppose...in the distant past history of a 20year old 944 a previous owner had re chipped the car, but not told the next owner...in other words there could well be mods to our cars we dont know about, and therefore not declaring, is ignorance an excuse ?

 

[chrisr]

ORIGINAL: scz

Just suppose...in the distant past history of a 20year old 944 a previous owner had re chipped the car, but not told the next owner...in other words there could well be mods to our cars we dont know about, and therefore not declaring, is ignorance an excuse ?

In a nutshell - No , it is up to the owner to be fully aware of any mods that the car may have had - the old I had no idea that the BHP had been upgraded from 200 to 400 isnt going to work []

 

[Mikie_gb]

I have just gotten a quote and asked them for a price with a future chip upgrade and a quote for STD chip..... 25% extra is added. No extra for a K&N filter. This was Heritage Classic insurance

 

[sawood12]

These insurance companies are so suspicious and have a "the glass is half empty" outlook. Suppose you wanted to mod your car to make it safer: like big red brake kits and wider wheels to reduce stopping distances, uprated suspension to improve road holding, ECU chips and turbo mods to increase performance so you are able to avoid accidents in the first place. It's as the 944 should have been as standard. They just seem to tar us all with the same brush as the 17yr old adolescents with their boyed up Corsas.

I blame insurance companies for stifling the engineering potential in this country!! We used be build Spitfires, now we build vacuum cleaners!